The LSU Tigers fired Les Miles last season. They parted with a coach who had won a national championship and had coached in a second national championship game. The program said goodbye to one of its more successful coaches over time. That’s not something a school easily does, but the leaders at LSU felt they had to do it. Now that the team has a new head coach, Ed Orgeron, it must build a new era and a new identity. There will be lots of intrigue and speculation in Baton Rouge around the ability of this program to find the offense which didn’t emerge last season – and which got Miles fired – but now is the time to deliver on that resolution.
How will the offense change under Matt Canada?
This is the question which will decide the shape and outcome of the 2017 season more than any other at LSU. Canada was a Broyles Award finalist for the work he did as Pittsburgh’s offensive coordinator. He was viewed as a star offensive coordinator on the open market, so when LSU got him, it was viewed as a coup.
The main task for Canada will be to coach his quarterback well enough to get LSU the reliable field general it needs. Brandon Harris was the starter at the beginning of the 2016 season under previous offensive coordinator Cam Cameron, but he struggled right out of the gate in September and inspired zero confidence in Baton Rouge. Danny Etling, who transferred into the program from Purdue, was inserted as the new starting quarterback, and while he had his moments (as was the case in the 54-39 win over Texas A&M), he couldn’t become the every-week star LSU needs from its quarterback. The Tigers have struggled to recruit to and develop this position not just in 2016, but for most of the past five years, and that’s why Miles got fired. Canada has to be able to make a fundamental breakthrough with his quarterback. Everything else is subtext with this team.
How will the team fare at linebacker?
There are two losses this team will absorb. Kendell Beckwith and Duke Riley were star linebackers this past season, but now they’re headed to the NFL and will force the Tigers to adopt a “next man up” mentality. At a place like LSU, recruiting the linebacker position isn’t that hard, but player development is not an automatic thing, and the Tigers have to be able to coach new linebackers to meet the standards fans expect. This is not a challenge or task which can be taken for granted.
Will anyone step up at wide receiver?
When Malachi Dupre recently announced that he would enter the NFL Draft, and when other pass catching leaders on the team such as Travin Dural also left the picture for 2017, this team had to confront limitations in recruiting. The cycle of newly-recruited wide receivers this year might not supply LSU with the 2017 talents it needs to be great. Players who were on the 2016 roster but didn’t get a lot of repetitions are the players who have to raise their games the most.
Will they miss Leonard Fournette?
On the surface, it looks like the answer to this question might be ‘no’, but let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. For the last two seasons, the Tigers have lined up with virtually no threat of a passing game but with a Heisman Trophy candidate in their backfield. Opposing defenses made their game plans around him. Everyone knew that he was an elite talent and that the Tigers had virtually no passing game to worry about.
That being said, Derrius Guice ran for more yards and touchdowns than Fournette last season, but he did it as a player that wasn’t really the focal point of opposing defenses; he was overlooked. Guice had five games of 155 rushing yards or more and then didn’t top 83 yards in the other six games. What’s worse is that the big games came against feeble competition. He had a combined 210 yards against Auburn, Alabama, Ole Miss and Florida. Guice need to be more consistent if he’s to adequately replace Fournette.
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